Advertising device.



H. A. ARMSTRONG.

ADVERTISING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 11. 19I5.

Patented Apr. 25,1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l- WITNESSES A TTOH/l/EYS H. A. ARMSTRONG.

ADVERTISING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY H, 1915.

Patented Apr. 25, 1916.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

THE COLUMBIA PLANOGRAPH c0.. WASHINGTON, D c.

HENRY ARGHIBALD ARMSTRONG, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

ADVERTISING DEVICE.

Application filed May 11, 1915.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, HENRY A. ARMSTRONG, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the city of New York, borough of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented a new and Improved Advertising Device, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to advertising devices and has particular reference to apparatus of a movable character designed to attract particular attention because of a pcculiar movable action.

More definitely stated, the invention relates to advertising devices commonly known as Jacobs ladders, and in which there are arranged a number of individual panels and so connected each to each that under certain conditions each upper panel drops or turns downwardly around its lower edge as an axis, causing a similar movement clownwardly of the next lower panel, both sides of the panel being available as supports for signs or other advertising matter.

Among the objects of this invention is to provide means to facilitate and insure the proper and prompt dropping or turning action of the several panels.

A further object of the invention is to improve the means for attaching the several flexible connections of the various panels.

The foregoing and other objects of the invention will hereinafter be more fully described and claimed and illustrated in the drawings forming a part of this specification in which like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the views, and in which Figure 1 is a front elevation of my improvement; Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same viewed from the left of Fig. 1; Fig, 3 is a detail view of the end of the uppermost panel, parts being in section on the line 3-3 of Fig. 1; Fig. 1 is a detail view of a modification, the view corresponding in some respects to Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is an end or edge view in diagram of the panels indicating the positions occupied by them just before the dropping action takes place, the arrows indicating the directions in which the several panels move around their imaginary axes in succession; and Fig. 6 is a vertical sectional detail on the line 66 of Fig. 1.

The several parts of this device may be made of any suitable materials, and the rela- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr.,25, 191463..

Serial No. 27,356.

tive sizes and proportions, as well as the general design of the mechanism, may be varied to a considerable extent without departing from the spirit of the invention hereinafter more fully described and claimed.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, I show at 10 an upright frame of any suitable nature and comprising a pair of standards 11 and 12 having an arch 13 connecting their upper ends to maintain them in steady parallel position. The lower ends of the standards are supported in sockets 141 and 15 each having a pair of feet 16 as indications of any suitable supporting means. The socket pieces 14 and 15 are connected by a transverse bar 17 serving to hold such socket pieces at fixed distances apart. The standards and cross members 13 and 17 constitute a substantially rectangular open frame in which the main part of the device is mounted.

18 indicates the uppermost panel pivoted on a central horizontal axis in the upper portions of the standards 11 and 12. The panel is supporteclby or includes a pair of heads 18 and 18 connected at their ends each to each by parallel channel members 18. The head l8 has a trunnion 19 projecting through the standard 11 and to some distance beyond the same. The head 18 is provided with a trunnion 20 journaled in or through the standard 12 and is arranged in v 1, projects beyond the plane of the pitman 23 and the pivot point 22 is spaced from the extreme end 23 of the pitman at a distance at least as great as the length of the crank 21.- It' will be appreciated, therefore, in View of Figs. 1 and 2, that the angular rotary movement ofthe panel 18 will be limited to slightly less than 180 degrees for, since the crank 21 is secured rigidly to the trunnion 19, the pitman will strike against the projecting end of the trunnion either at the end 23' or at a point 23 on the opposite side of 'thepivot point 22.

At M is indicated a motor of any suitable construction having a shaft 24 carrying a worm 25 meshing with and driving constantly in either direction a worm wheel 26 pivoted at 27 upon the lower portion of the standard 11. To the wheel 26 is connected at 27 the lower end of the pitman 23, the distance from the pivot 27 to the axis of the wheel being enough less than the length of the crank 21 to permit the wheel 26 to make complete rotations successively under the action of the motor.

Suspended to and below the panel 18 are other panels 28, 29, and 31. While I show but a total, of five panels, it will be understood that any other suitable number may be employed in the series, the principle of operation remaining unchanged. Each panel is connected to the next panel above it by flexible connections which .may be termed for convenience hereinafter as wires and which are arranged in duplicate with the wires of one set crossing the other between the connected panels. As seen in Fig. 5, one edge of the uppermost panel 18 is connected by wires 32 that pass around one of the edges ofthe panel 28 and are secured thereto at 33. The other edge of the panel 18 is connected by wires 34: that pass around such edge and extend thence across the space between the two panels and around the opposite edge of the panel 28 to points 35. The wires 32 may be continued beyond the points 33 to form connections 32 between the panels 28 and 29 and likewise the wires 34 may be continued beyond the points forming connections 34: between the same two panels 28 and 29 but crossing'the wires 32*. The several wires, however, are connected rigidly at the edges of the panel 29 at 32 and 34 respectively, whence the same wires or similar connections may extend to the next panel 30 as 32 and 34 respectively, the points of connections being indicated at thepanel 30 by the characters 32 and 34 The panel 31 is connected on its opposite edges by wires 32 and 34 secured at the points 32 3 1 respectively, the wires between each two panels being arranged, as above intimated, in duplicate and crossing one another.

With the motor operating the wheel 26 continuously at a moderate speed, the pitman 23 causes the crank 21 and connected panel 18' to oscillate around the axis of the trunnions 19 and 20 through an arc of nearly 180 degrees so asto present either flat side of the panel to view in front of the machine. Figs. 1 and 2 show the position of the parts just after the panels have turned around theirv axes, actual or imaginary, and with the pitman about to begin its downward movement under the force of the motor and wheel 26. Such further movement of the pitman will cause the crank 21 to move in a counterclockwise direction as viewed in Fig. 2, and when the point 27 reaches its lowermost position the panel 18 will have been turned to the position shown in Figs. 3 and 5, the wires 32 serving to lift bodily upwardly upon the panel 28 with a corresponding upward movement of all of the lower panels through their corre sponding connections. This upward movement of all of the panels, except the first, is resisted resiliently by a spring 36 connected at one end to the cross bar 17 and at the other end to a yoke 37 to which the lowermost panel 31 is pivoted along its longitudinal center at the points 38. The spring 36, however, yields sufiiciently to permit the suspended panels to be lifted far enough for the panel 28 to be brought up substantially flatly against the first panel at which time the panel 28 is free to swing outwardly around its lower edge which is then closely parallel to the lower edge of the panel 18 so that the panel 28 will strike against the next lower panel permitting and causing the next lower panel to swing downwardly in the opposite direction against the panel 30 which in turn will swing outwardly in the same direction as did the panel 28 and finally the panel 31 will move in a combined swinging and downward movement under the influence of the spring 36. The general direction of movement of these parts is shown by the arrows on Fig. 5. After this swinging change has taken place in the several panels, the pitman moving upwardly again from the lowermost point of the pivot 27' toward the point shown in Fig. 2, the panel 18 will be swung in the opposite direction causing the several panels to be lifted in substantially the same manner as above described but on the other side of the uppermost panel.

In order to obviate any possibility of the panel 28 sticking or failing to swing promptly when lifted, as shown in Figs. 3 and 5, I provide a special construction in the nature of a cam 39 mounted to swing around a pivot 40 on the inner face of the standard 12 and having at its lower end a yoke 11 in which a cam 42 operates. The cam 42 is rigidly connected to the trunnion 20 and coincidentally with the oscillation of such trunnion 20 the cam 12 causes the corresponding rotation of the actuator cam 35) so as to bring one of the cam surfaces 39 into position to be engaged by a stud 413 extending from the end of each edge of the panel 28. In other words, the actuatorcam 39 extends upwardly in a vertical direction but is adapted to be tilted at its top outnardly toward the ascending suspended panel. The position of the cam surface 39 on e ther side, therefore, is such as to insure positive outward and downward actuation of the ascending suspended panel and thereby insuring that such panel will swing outwardly and downwardly as intended.

In Fig. 1 I show a stationary actuator cam 39 having active cam faces 39 having the same function as the corresponding faces of the oscillating cam actuator, but in the stationary form of actuator the cam faces 39 diverge from each other to a greater extent than in the movable actuator, and both pro inclined to the same degree from the vertical at all times.

As a preferred means for connecting the wires to the several panels, and especially the uppermost panel 18 upon which most of the strain or weight is borne, I provide for each of the heads 18 and 18 a pair of pins a4: shown in Fig. 6 and in dotted lines in Fig. 1, the same being close to and parallel to the channels 18 extending through the heads from their outer ends. These pins, there fore, serve as positive strong anchors for the wires. Another function for the pins 4 1 is to serve as spreaders for the cards or plates which constitute or carry the signs, advertising matter or the like which may be displayed on the reversible panels already described. The upper and lower edges of the plates 41:5 are adapted to be slipped into the channel members 18 and being spread at their ends by the pins are effectively locked in proper position.

As may be appreciated from the edge view of 2, the cooperation between the projecting trunnion 19 and the pitman 23 at either point 23 or 23" constitutes a positive means for resisting or counteracting-the vibratory tendency of the falling or dropping panels. The weight of all of the suspended panels and the jar incident to the dropping thereof successively is always borne through the uppermost panel 18 and resisted by the positive connections set forth, with the result that the tendency to lateral or forward and backward vibration of the system of panels is practically eliminated.

I claim:

1. In a device of the character set forth, the combination with a relatively stationary frame and an oscillatory panel journaled transversely therein, of a motor to actuate the panel, a. crank connected to the proiecting trunnion at one end of the panel, and a pitman pivoted to the crank and connected for operation by the motor, said trunnion extending beyond the plane of movement of the pitinan and. adapted to be struck by the pitman at the end of each oscillatory movement of the panel.

2. In a device of the nature set forth, the combination of a pair of standards, an oscillatory panel having coaxial end trunnions journaled in said standards, one of the trunnions extending beyond the standard in which it is journaled, a crank secured to the projecting trunnion, driving mechanism including a wheel journaled for rotation in substantially the same plane as the crank, a pitman pivoted at one end to the wheel on a radius shorter than the length of the crank, said projecting trunnion extending beyond the plane of the pitman, and means connecting the opposite end portion of the pitman to the crank whereby a part of the pitman is adapted to impinge against the projecting trunnion at the completion of each half rotation of the wheel.

3. The herein described Jacobs ladder construction comprising the combination with a relatively stationary rigid frame including spaced standards and a cross bar, an oscillatory panel journaled in the standards, means to oscillate the same positively in opposite directions at low speed through an angle of slightly less than 180 degrees, and a series of other panels suspended from the oscillatory panel and adapted to be lifted thereby during each oscillation thereof, of a yoke pivotally connected to the horizontal central axis of the lowermost panel, and flexible means extending between the yoke and said cross bar, said flexible means resisting the lifting action upon the suspended panels.

In a device of the character set forth, the combination of an oscillatory panel in cluding end heads and plate holding means extending between the heads, a series of other panels below the aforesaid panel, and means serving to suspend the series of panels from the first mentioned panel, said suspending means including a plurality of wires between each panel and the next and across the space between them, and a plurality of pins projecting into said heads parallel to the axis of the first mentioned panel to which the wires are connected.

5. The combination of a frame, an oscillatory panel journaled therein, means to os cillate said panel positively, a panel below the first mentioned panel, flexible connections between the panels serving to cause the second panel to be lifted coincidentally with the oscillation of the firstmentioned panel and then permitted to swing outwardly and downwardly therefrom. around its lower edge as an axis, actuator means carried by the frame adj cent one end of the first mentioned panel and. having oppositely disposed faces, and means carried by the second mentioned panel cooperating with one or the other of said cam faces at the time the lifting movement is completed to positively cause the outward and downward swinging of such panel.

6. In a device of the character set forth, the combination of a frame including a pair of vertical standards, an oscillatory panel journaled in said standards, means to oscillate said panel positively in both directions, an actuator carried by the standard at one end of the panel and having cam faces projecting forwardly and rearwardly at right angles to the vertical plane of the axis of the panel, a series of other panels suspended panel to positively swing outwardly and from the oscillatory panel and adapted to downwardly around its lower edge as an be lifted bodily thereby at each oscillation axis.

thereof, and means carried by the second HENRY ARCHIBALD ARMSTRONG. 5 panel and adapted to Wipe against one or Witnesses:

the other of said cam faces'at the end of F. G. SMALL,

each lifting movement to cause the second WALLACE INGRAHAM.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. 0. 

